Monthly archives for May, 2014

It’s been a while since we’ve plumbed the depths of our electronic mail bag to unearth reader gems. Well, we’re making up a bit for lost time today, and we think we’ve come up with some interesting missives — all positive, of course.

Regular contributor Jeff Woodman agrees with the points made by our Books-To-Movies maven, Larry Michie, in a recent three parter about how Ernest Hemingway novels fail for the most part to make interesting movies. The series ran in early May, and Jeff responds to Finally — A Good Movie From A Hemingway Novel published on May 9.

Nice series of posts, guys!

Thanks for pointing out what I’ve always felt — for an acclaimed author of wildly successful novels, the movies made from Hemingway’s oeuvre generally stink! (I must admit, I tried reading Hemingway years ago and pretty much loathed everything I attempted — heresy, I know.)

The liberties taken by (director Howard) Hawks in 1944 get further justification when one watches “The Breaking Point” (1950), an earnest, comparatively faithful-to-the-source-material version of ‘To Have And Have Not’, with a very good John Garfield and Patricia Neal, that, despite a good cast and script, just kinda lays there.

Any thoughts on “Islands In The Stream” (1977)? I remember disliking it as a kid, and it wasn’t a hit, but it seems to be fairly well regarded today.

Thanks, Jeff. Haven’t seen Islands In The Stream costarring the late George C. Scott, David Hemings and Gilbert Roland (nice cast) in quite a while so we’ll have to take another look.

From Stephanie:

Thanks for finally writing about ALAIN DELON(Out of Sight, But not Forgotten – Certainement!, March 13). Loved it!

Well, thank you, Stephanie. It was our pleasure to spread the word about this superb French actor who, unfortunately, is not as widely noted today as he should be.

Finally, we are STILL getting emails in response to our Was Van Johnson Gay blog published way back on Feb. 3, 2012. This one from Frederick Bailey says it all:

To me it is not important whether he was gay or not. I grew (up) watching his ’40s movies and I am still a real fan.

We suggest you go back and read ALL the comments that entry has garnered.

Today we salute the long and curious career of Herb Jeffries, considered America’s first black singing cowboy.

He died May 25 in West Hills, California; his age (never precisely nailed down) was put at somewhere near the century mark. He lived with joie de vivre throughout and maintained a certain style right to the end. An interesting performer often underrated and overlooked.

Depending on the source, Herbert Jeffrey (his surname was inadvertently changed to Jeffries thanks to a billing typo that he decided to adopt permanently) was born in Detroit either in 1909, 1911, 1913 or 1916, of a mixed-race marriage.

His white Irish mother operated a rooming house. Jeffries never knew his father, said to be an Ethiopian. Nonetheless, Jeffries presented himself professionally as a black performer. The subject of Jeffries’ race seemingly obsesses obit writers, particularly at The New York Times. Our view: care about talent not racial identity.

Jeffries was not an actor at first, but a jazz singer. And a good one.

At 19, he joined the Erskin Tate Orchestra at the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago. In 1931, he was hired away by Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, and then shifted to Blanche Calloway’s band (she is Cab’s older sister) before installing himself in Los Angeles as vocalist-MC at popular watering hole known as Club Alabam.

Jeffries was a looker — tall, slender but muscular with a Latin look complete with pencil-line mustache.

It was in the late Thirties that movies beckoned. But such curious movies. There were five in all (one titled The Bronze Buckaroo), each a western starring Jeffries as the good guy dressed in black who sang from time to time. From then on Jeffries was widely referred to as “The Bronze Buckaroo.”

The production values were rudimentary, the cast was all Afro-American. To say that budgets were “bare minimal” would be hyperbole.

In 1938′s Harlem Rides The Range, Jeffries stars as “Bob Blake,” a straight-shooting Lone Ranger type who extricates a virtuous maiden’s family from the clutches of a greedy landlord and his libidinous wife.

The Merit Pictures production (Merit Pictures?) opens with Jeffries vocalizing with a backup quartet, but then gets on with the action sans songs but with comic overtones. Included in the cast is veteran character actor Mantan Moreland, whose onscreen antics are too often dismissed today — unfairly, in our view — as un-PC.

When initially released, these westerns were probably never seen by white audiences. Instead, they played the black theater circuits back in those segregated times.

Jeffries made his most lasting mark as a singer when he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra, becoming most closely identified with his superb interpretation of “Flamingo.” It was Jeffries’ first recording with the Ellington band, on Dec. 28, 1940, and became a huge hit.

Jeffries ranks as one of the best singers Ellington ever hired. From this period on through the late Fifties, Jeffries concentrated on his musical career. Interestingly, Ellington encouraged Jeffries to lower his natural tenor voice to sound more like Bing Crosby. Recalled Jeffries, Duke thought Bing was one of the greatest baritones of all time.

From the late Fifties on, Jeffries returned to Hollywood, working extensively in television right into the mid Nineties.

He moved to Europe in earlier the Fifties, and ran a Paris night club for a while. He’s been married four times, once (for eight years) to legendary stripper Tempest Storm. Right to the end, Jeffries made appearances as “The Bronze Buckaroo,” perhaps the last of the singing cowboys.

As mentioned yesterday, we’re more or less rounding the circle this week with our Monday Quiz.

Covered in recent blogs have been Peter Lorre, MaryAstor and Humphrey Bogart. We decided to complete The Maltese Falcon notables roster with Sydney Greenstreet.

He certainly qualifies for Joe’s designation awarded Lorre and Astor, that of character actor STAR.

How much do you really know about this vast and vastly entertaining screen actor? Well, we hope you took yesterday’s quiz to find out. To refresh yourselves on the questions, just scroll down a bit to Monday’s blog. Now, on to our answers:

1) Answer: d) Donald Crisp won the best supporting acting Oscar awarded in 1942 for his role in John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley. Besides Greenstreet, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn and James Gleason were also nominated in that category.

2) Answer: b) 61. The Hollywood phase of his career came after decades Greenstreet spent decades as a stage actor (see next answer).

3) Answer: d) 40 years spent treading the boards both on Broadway and on the stage in Greenstreet’s native England.

4) Answer: Ok, we admit to making this a trick question. So you’ll get credit no matter your choice. Mongomery Clift, Phyllis Thaxter, Alfred Lunt and Thomas Gomez ALL were in the Broadway cast (along with Greenstreet) of 1940′s There Shall Be No Night by Robert E. Sherwood. The play had a lengthy run and won a Pulitzer Prize.

5) Answer: a) Greenstreet and Peter Lorre appear in nine films together. That’s nearly half of the some 25 titles made overall by Greenstreet. They make a great couple.

7) Answer: b) False. Greenstreet married Dorothy Marie Ogden in 1918 when he was nearly 40. The couple stayed married until his death at age 74 in 1954.

8) Answer: d) Greenstreet appears as the jaded, fly-swatting Casablanca night club owner who keeps close tabs on Rick’s Cafe Americain. He isn’t in the picture for long but he’s hard to forget.

9) Answer: a) Greenstreet’s character in Across The Pacific is a German agent posing as a Japanese-speaking academic with a post in the Philippines. He tosses off lines such as “Japanese make great servants…wonderful little people.” When the picture came out in 1942 Hollywood could get away with such dialogue.

10) Answer: d) Flamingo Road. Greenstreet’s character in the picture, a corrupt southern sheriff, may have been fat but he was hardly easy going or friendly.

Covered in recent blogs have been Peter Lorre (last week’s Monday Quiz) and MaryAstor (last week’s Star of the Week). Since we’ve previously devoted ample space to Humphrey Bogart in both general and quiz form, we decided to complete The Maltese Falcon notables roster today with our Monday Quiz about — Sydney Greenstreet.

He certainly qualifies for Joe’s designation awarded Lorre and Astor, that of character actor STAR. As author-critic David Thomson notes, “few (movie) introductions have been as dramatic”as Greenstreet’s “the fat man” in John Huston’s groundbreaking film noir.

How much do you really know about this vast and vastly entertaining screen actor? Well, we cordially invite you to take our quiz, and find out. Answers tomorrow.

1) Question: Greenstreet was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as “the fat man” in The Maltese Falcon. He did not win the Oscar. Which one of the following did? a) Walter Brennan; b) Charles Coburn; c) James Gleason; or d) Donald Crisp.

2) Question: Just how old was Greenstreet when he made his Hollywood film debut? a) 49; b) 61; c) 57; or d) 59.

3) Question: How many years had Greenstreet toiled as a stage actor before arriving in Hollywood? a) 5; b) 20; c) 13; or d) 40.

4) Question: Which of the following worked with Greenstreet in a Broadway stage production of a highly successful drama? a) Montgomery Clift; b) Phyllis Thaxter; c) Alfred Lunt; or d) Thomas Gomez. (Editor’s warning: this is a trick question so be careful.)

8) Question: Greenstreet appeared with Bogie, Ingrid Bergman and Lorre in 1942′s Casablanca, but if you blinked a few times you may have missed him. What role did he play? a) a sleazy drug dealer; b) a British officer; c) a secret Nazi agent; or d) a seen-it-all nightclub owner who has his eyes on Rick’s Cafe Americain?

9) Question: Greenstreet’s character in 1942′s Across The Pacific would have a hard time passinga political correctness test today. Why? a) The character makes defamatory cracks about Asians; b) American Indians are patronized; c) China and the Chinese are insulted; or d) Italians and French are demonized.

10) Question: In which of his movies did Greenstreet say, “you know, I’ve always been just an easy-going, friendly fat old man?” a) 1949′s Malaya; b) 1946′s Three Strangers; c) 1943′s Backround to Danger or d) 1949′s Flamingo Road.

A few weeks ago we highlighted character actor Charles Lane, who’d worked for decades and racked up over 350 films. Several readers responded to our article about Lane and regular contributor Jeff Woodman had this to say:

Wow, thanks for another great post, and for turning the spotlight on Lane. Had no idea he’d worked up until so recently, but he was always a welcome presence — in spite of pretty much defining the term “sour puss.” (And he was a wonderful, almost tailor-made foil for Lucy on several occasions…)

And here’s a plug for another grand old guy, Burt Mustin, who amassed only half as many credits as Rooney and Lane, but who didn’t begin his acting career until AFTER he’d retired! In spite of his comparatively brief run (1951 – 1977), he became one of those ubiquitous, nameless “Oh yeah, him” character actors who seemed always to have been around, and whose presence greatly enhanced so many movies and TV shows.

Keep ‘em coming, gents!

Jeff made us take a second look at Burt Mustin.

Even more than Lane, Mustin is known by his face and not his name. Although the majority of his work was on TV he did start in films when William Wyler cast his as the janitor in the film version of Detective Story. Supposedly Wyler had seen him in a production of the play and told the retired gentleman to look him up if he ever got to Hollywood. He did and the rest as they say….

Yes, most people guessed the identity of Frank Morgan, the Wizard of Oz himself, as the more famous brother of character actor Ralph Morgan in our puzzler last week.

But Ralph, seven years older than Frank and a graduate of Columbia University, was successful first on Broadway and in silents, and it was his success which led Frank to enter the acting profession.

Ralph had a long career as a character actor in films, radio and television, but his important contribution to the industry was as a founding member of The Screen Actors Guild. He was the first president of SAG and served 4 terms throughout the 1930s.

Frank Morgan was a character actor but also a STAR. And in his long film career he played opposite almost all the Big Stars of his time.

Both brothers looked much older than they were. Frank, who died of a heart attack in 1949 was only 59 when he died. Ralph passed away in 1956 at 72.

All that info about Peter Lorre, who Joe thinks is the most famous character actor STAR of classic movies, led us to think about which female would nab the crown as the biggest character actor STAR– and only one name came to mind – Mary Astor.

Oh yes, Mary, born Lucile Langhanke, was a leading lady in many silents and early talkies, and is best remembered for being Humphrey Bogart’s femme fatale lady in The Maltese Falcon, but it was when she played second leads that she shined. From Red Dust to The Palm Beach Story, from mothers to madams.

Astor always said she’d rather be the second lead. She didn’t want the responsibility of carrying a film. In the course of her 44 year career she played opposite the greatest stars of the age –Barrymore, Gable, Bogart, Tracy, Bette Davis, Judy Garland, William Powell, Jean Harlow.

There (above) she is with Sydney Greenstreet and Bogie in Across the Pacific. But, though Astor was the second, or third lead, she was and remained a STAR.

Offscreen, she was also quite the femme. Picture this. Astor’s second husband, one Dr. Franklin Thorpe, casually opens a dresser drawer one evening, discovers a leather-bound volume and begins to read.

“…remarkable staying power. I don’t see how he does it….His powers of recuperation are amazing, and we made love all night long…It all worked perfectly, and we shared our fourth climax at dawn.”

Thorpe knew immediately that the “he” was not him. “It seems that George is just hard all the time…I don’t see how he does it, he is perfect.” The entry from Palm Springs went, “Ah, desert night — with George’s body plunging into mine, naked under the stars.”

The “George” here is playwright George S. Kaufman, and if you’ve ever seen a picture of him you would have to question Astor’s taste in men. Well, she was 30 at the time, and Kaufman (then 47) was quite the man for her

By this time, Astor had been making movies in Hollywood for 14 years.

After appearing in silents, she moved on into “talkies” with 1930′s Ladies Love Brutes. It was during her silent movie period when she appeared in 1926′s Don Juan opposite John Barrymore, and decided to become the actor’s young mistress.

The sensational breakup of Astor’s marriage to Thorpe thanks to her affair with Kaufman actually resulted in a career boost. The actress’ best work from 1936 to the late Forties included her unforgettable turn as Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. Also, she appeared in William Wyler’sDodsworth and playeda deviously self-sacrificing mother in the BetteDavis starring vehicle, 1941′s The Great Lie, for which Astor won a best supporting actress Oscar.

Astor’s fast-lane life (four husbands in all, various lovers, alcoholism, many visits to a psychiatrist) took its toll. By the early Fifties, her star status had slipped to supporting part player. Her last movie was Robert Aldrich’sHush, Hush…Sweet Charlotte in 1964 after which she exploited her talent as a fiction writer.

Mary Astor died 1987 at the age of 87. A memorable actress and, certainly, a most literate mistress.

He may well have been the finest character actor STAR Hollywood ever produced.

The former Laszlo Lowenstein from somewhere in the old Austro-Hungarian empire was almost as bizarre off screen as he was on — in nearly 155 movie and TV credits spread over two continents and a 35-year career.

That’s quite a bit of work given that Peter Lorre died of a stroke early, at age 59 in 1964.

As much as you might know about this superb actor, we’re hoping that we were able to stump you with our quiz, and perhaps add an informative point or two. To review the questions, just scroll down a bit to yesterday’s blog. Now, on to the answers.

1) Answer: d) Fritz Lang, the director of M, was convinced that Lorre, then an unknown and untried actor of round body and angelic face, would be perfect for the lead as a child murderer. Audiences would believe that no human being looking like Peter Lorre could commit these horrible murders, said Lang. He was right. Lorre’s performance is an unexpected, split personality tour-de-force.

2) Answer: b) David Wayne. The remake directed by Joseph Losey was released by Columbia Pictures in 1951, and was a disaster. The studio wound up pulling the picture, and little has been heard about it since.

3) Answer: a) True. In dire straights with financial, health and marital problems, Lorre took any role in the Sixties he could get. Thus he appeared in a small part in American International Pictures’ Muscle Beach Party in 1964. He died the same year.

4) Answer: c) According to Casablanca costar Paul Henreid, Lorre miked the off-set sexual assignations of the movie’s director Michael Curtiz. Thus his grunts and groans were overheard and greeted with great hilarity by cast and crew without Curtiz’ knowledge. The director never found out who originated the prank.

5) Answer: b) Sydney Greenstreet. He and Lorre worked together in nine films with 1941′s The Maltese Falcon setting the bar. In their own dark ways the pair was equally as amusing as Abbott and Costello.

6) Answer: Lorre was a tad taller, standing 5-feet 3-1/2-inches to Mickey Rooney’s 5-feet 2. Nonetheless, when they costarred in the 1950 thriller Quicksand, it is Rooney who gets to punch out Lorre.

7) Answer: c) The Stranger on the Third Floor, a 64-minute programmer released by RKO in 1940. It remains a startling picture with Lorre playing a reclusive — and very creepy — villain who slits the throats of elderly tenement residents. Writes film noir expert Eddie Muller: This match-up of theme and (visual) style made ‘The Stranger on the Third Floor’ the first Hollywood film to affect the look later known as noir.

8) Answer: a) The Man Who Knew Too Much. We are talking about Alfred Hitchcock’s 1934 British original, not his 1956 remake at Paramount costarring James Stewart and Doris Day. During an interview with Hitchcock prior to production, Lorre mastered the trick of smiling and laughing while the director delivered one of his many stories — thus concealing the fact that the actor’s grasp of English was tenuous. After being cast as a villain in The Man Who Knew Too Much, Lorre had to learn much of his part phonetically.

He may well have been the finest character actor Hollywood ever produced.

The former Laszlo Lowenstein from somewhere in the old Austro-Hungarian empire was almost as bizarre offscreen as he was on — in nearly 155 movie and TV credits spread over two continents and a 35-year career. That’s quite a bit of work given that Peter Lorre died of a stroke early, at age 59 in 1964.

There is no doubt that his performances were streaked with varying degrees of evil. But he played with certain qualifications imposed on his characterizations by his acting skills and his innate sense of humor. (Lorre was known in Hollywood circles as a consummate prankster.)

He acted with the best, and appeared in some of the best films ever to come out of the old studio system. Lorre is well worth knowing more about, and that’s the aim of today’s Monday Quiz.

As much as you may think you know about this superb actor, we are hoping that we will be able to stump you, and perhaps add an informative point or two. Now, on to our Peter Lorre Quiz.

1) Question: Lorre first made his movie acting debut playing a child murderer in Fritz Lang’s 1931 German classic, M. What convinced Lange to cast the then unknown actor? a) The director was contractually obligated to do so; b) Lorre agreed to work for very little money; c) The German actor that Lang originally sought was not available; or d) that Lorre’s angelic appearance at the time was perfect for his grisly role.

2) Question: M was remade in English but Lorre was NOT considered for the role of the murderer. Who wound up playing the part? a) Anthony Perkins; b) David Wayne; c) Rod Steiger; or d) George Chakiris.

3) Question: Shortly before he died, the down-on-his-luck Lorre was forced to make beach movies costarring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. a) True; or b) False.

4) Question: On the set of Casablanca, perhaps Lorre’s most famous picture, he stage managed an off-camera stunt that provoked gales of laughter among cast members. What did he do? a) Gave hot foots to key actors while they were napping; b) Distributed fake pay checks with lower salary amounts on then; c) Secretly miked the director’s offset sexual assignations for the amusement of the cast and crew; or d) Spiked the onset water jugs with absinthe.

5) Question: Which actor was most closely associated with Lorre, so close that the duo evoked comparisons of comedians Abbott and Costello. a) Zachary Scott; b) SydneyGreenstreet; c) Vincent Price; or d) Boris Karloff.

6) Question: The pint-sized Lorre found himself costarring in a Fifties film noir tussling with another shorty, Mickey Rooney. Which one was taller?

7) Question: Speaking of the genre, which one of Lorre’s starring performances in which one of his films strongly influenced the entire course of fim noir for some two decades? a) Casablanca; b) The Maltese Falcon; c) The Stranger on the Third Floor; or d) The Maskof Dimitrios.

8) Question: In which Alfred Hitchcock picture did Lorre exercise the most guile to secure the leading role? a) The Man Who Knew Too Much; b) Torn Curtain; c) Psycho; or d) The 39 Steps.

9) Question: Which of Lorre’s offscreen quirks especially caught Hitchcock’s attention. Lorre’s habit of a) Crossing himself repeatedly before a scene began; b) Rehearsing in a floor-length overcoat; c) Collecting valuable story properties and selling them to directors; or d) Break out in tears when a studio executive would come on the set.